1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a programming device which finds application in the integrated use of a user control program and a graphic program plotting program prepared using an auxiliary input means such as a mouse.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Generally in an automatic monitoring system used for the monitor and control of various equipment in a building, production plant or the like, the process flow, wiring system and so on are displayed on the cathode-ray-tube display and the operational status of the equipment is monitored and controlled by reference to the display on the CRT screen. For the device used in such a system, the user prepares a control program as well as the picture data necessary for graphic plotting for the various constituent elements of the equipment (such as the power source, circuit breakers, etc.) and keep on file the picture data together with the control program. Then, if a fault or trouble is detected by any sensor installed in the production line, the above-prepared picture data are read out during execution of the control program and linked to the control program and the part of the display at the position corresponding to the location of the fault is rewritten, for instance, so as to allow the fault to be identified.
To generate such a graphic output, it might be contemplated to prepare program instruction words of the high-level language anew and execute them but it is troublesome to, inter alia, decide on a suitable format. Therefore, it is common practice to use an auxiliary input means such as a mouse or a track ball.
The procedure for generation of a graphic output using such an auxiliary input means is as follows. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the auxiliary input means is manipulated to serially input encoded picture data relating to the basic picture classification, e.g. a line or a circle, and coordinate values designating the start and end points of the basic picture unit (Step 1). The respective picture data are filed in a picture data file (Step 2) and, then, are translated by an interpreter into the machine language (Step 3). The machine language data are then serially filed in a machine language data file (Step 4). For display of a graphic output, a CPU reads out the filed picture data from the machine data file, processes them (Step 5) and transmits a graphic plotting instruction to a graphic controller (Step 6).
Based on this instruction, the graphic controller develops the graphic output on a video RAM (Step 7). The content of this video RAM is displayed on a CRT display secreen (Step 8).
In this system, every time a picture data for graphic plotting is entered by an auxiliary input means, such as a mouse, it is transformed into a machine language data as mentioned above. This presents the problem that the user cannot partially modify the graphic output or reuse it effectively. Thus, in order to modify any part of the graphic output, the picture data must be modified but the picture data from the auxiliary input means have already been transformed into machine language data which are difficult to read. Moreover, in order to modify the content of the display at the position of a trouble as it is required in the above-mentioned automatic monitoring system, the picture data must be linked to the control program but since the language levels are dissimilar, an exclusive program for linking them is additionally required. Thus, the device has a drawback in use.